#acquisition

So...does that give us any hope ? This sounds like a huge deal
What's the reality behind it?

Statement:
ConocoPhillips has notified employees, partners and regulators that it is evaluating a potential sale of its Norway business and Teesside asset after receiving an unsolicited offer. This evaluation is consistent with the company's disciplined strategy to optimize and high-grade its portfolio. If we do not receive an offer that meets the company's expectations for value, ConocoPhillips will retain the assets.

What are your thoughts?

It seems like the same pattrn plays out at co after co. Head honchos spend heavily on the latest strategy, acquisition, transformation or tech, then a year or two later decides costs are too high and headcount needs to come down. Peons are told the cuts are necessary for efficiency, competitivness or shareholder value. Meanwhile exec comp keeps ballooning and the people who made the original decisions rarely suffer the consequences when those decisions don't work out. Maybe that's the real problem. The people deciding where to spend the money are often the same people deciding who pays the price when the spending doesnt produce the expected results.

Pep Boys will eliminate 169 jobs at its Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania corporate offices following the company's sale to Mavis Tire. Layoffs are expected to begin 12-31-2026.

Exxon? Kuwait? Lyondell? Private Equity?

Hearing no one wants every site and it might get parted out

Cleveland-Cliffs is under fire from the Canadian government following significant layoffs at its Ontario facilities. These job cuts impact up to 500 workers and occurred shortly after the company acquired Stelco Holdings Inc. The federal government had approved the acquisition with strict conditions regarding employment maintenance. Now, the government is reviewing the situation to ensure commitments are upheld. Legal experts suggest the government may take action if the company is found to be in violation of its obligations.

Hamilton, Ontario

https://news.ssbcrack.com/cleveland-cliffs-faces-potential-legal-action-from-ottawa-over-stelco-layoffs/

I heard someone talking at McDonald's that Intel don't have enough people to make chips anymore. Only way to lead is to buy the competitors to make chips for it to lead.

This is an interesting development. Hopefully we start making smart acquisitions

PepsiCo to buy Chobani Yogurts? Hearing deal is nearly done. Any one else heard this?

Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison has picked HBO content chief Casey Bloys to oversee streaming operations once the company combines with Warner Bros. Discovery, people familiar with the matter said.

https://www.wsj.com/business/media/ellison-picks-hbo-content-chief-to-run-paramount-warner-streaming-business-db33649c

They are going to tell you it is AI. But it is "Actually India":

https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/doordash-create-3000-jobs-global-tech-centre-india-2026-09-30/

Today, it is trading in the 33’s. 3 years and 9 months and the stock is down over 50%. One has to believe the board doesn’t know what it’s doing or they are holding on for a sale.

Who knew when we pushed her out after WP acquisition she would come back to ruin the company.

Her vision and execution is terrible only worse than her hiring. Congrats on spending more time cutting costs than improving the products and sales teams.

What does she care, 80 million richer at the end of this year (20 mil a year), surrounding by minions that won’t give necessary feedback and horrible hires in HR, CFO and CAO.

BASF is reportedly in exploratory negotiations to acquire Evonik, another major German chemical company. This potential merger comes as both companies face challenges in the cosmetics and personal care raw materials sector, with slowing growth and increased competition. The deal could significantly reshape the global beauty and personal care ingredient market if it proceeds. Both companies have complementary strengths, with BASF offering scale and a broad product line, while Evonik excels in specialty chemicals and high-end additives. The move may signal a broader trend of consolidation in the upstream beauty industry as companies seek to navigate market pressures.

https://eu.36kr.com/en/p/4003124352667784

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chevrons-47b-deal-for-oxy-secures-permian-supremacy-171509259.html

https://seekingalpha.com/news/4648005-att-corning-enter-multi-year-fiber-and-cable-supply-deal?share_source=shared_news

I'm saying this as somebody who was part of another similarly major acquisition. We've had our first round within a month of things being made official, but that was not the biggest one. Those were mostly directly redundant positions. A few months later, there was a monster of a round, with several smaller rounds following every few months. One of those got me. That's why I'm not looking forward to the next year, at least.

CEO of VisitRecall now bought in as CEO of UHC AI and product innovation. He developed AI product and now it is closing as of Sept 30th. So as an entrepreneur develope AI, get a job with UHC.

It’s just a matter of time before a strategic buyer steps in and tries to unwind the series of useless acquisitions. It has become very obvious what the ELT’s end goal is. The insane sales target for the year + the cutting of employee benefits = fattening up the hog for sla-ghter.

I hope everyone here titrates their effort down to 0. I was already checked out and plan on doubling down.

Good luck to the shareholders.

Keeps coming up on the street

Pep Boys is planning significant layoffs at its headquarters. This action follows the company's acquisition in August. The sale of the company was valued at $700 million. Further details regarding the extent of the layoffs are not yet available. The company is known for its iconic advertising caricatures.

Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania

https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2026/09/25/pep-boys-layoffs-office-mavis.html

News reports coming of another formal all stock bid presented to the board for around 80-90 dollars by a prominent US technology company on the West Coast. Now who could it be. It can't be Google or Apple as they have competing wallets. Amazon is a possibility but Amazon is not so much into payments. X is not headquartered on west coast and is nit a pureplay tech company. That leaves only Meta. Meta has been looking to convert Watsapp into a superapp especially for payments and the new Watsapp CEO has background in credit and fintech in India. To me the muse partnership is really an opening shot into a process to buyout PP by Meta and get payment rails instantly. Meta won't want another 20k+ employees . Expect more brutal layoffs!

In hindsight, he said he wished he had not exposed Pioneer employees to Exxon’s “notoriously cut-throat and dysfunctional culture” but instead pursued takeovers of other US oil companies such as Range Resources or Endeavour Energy Resources.

https://finance.yahoo.com/energy/articles/shale-tycoon-claims-exxon-ceo-124336695.html

https://www.ft.com/content/ad6d56fa-6a6e-43bd-8f12-205a3f94ac0e?syn-25a6b1a6=1

In hindsight, he said he wished he had not exposed Pioneer employees to Exxon’s “notoriously cut-throat and dysfunctional culture” but instead pursued takeovers of other US oil companies such as Range Resources or Endeavour Energy Resources.

https://finance.yahoo.com/energy/articles/shale-tycoon-claims-exxon-ceo-124336695.html

https://www.ft.com/content/ad6d56fa-6a6e-43bd-8f12-205a3f94ac0e?syn-25a6b1a6=1

In hindsight, he said he wished he had not exposed Pioneer employees to Exxon’s “notoriously cut-throat and dysfunctional culture” but instead pursued takeovers of other US oil companies such as Range Resources or Endeavour Energy Resources.

https://finance.yahoo.com/energy/articles/shale-tycoon-claims-exxon-ceo-124336695.html

https://www.ft.com/content/ad6d56fa-6a6e-43bd-8f12-205a3f94ac0e?syn-25a6b1a6=1

In hindsight, he said he wished he had not exposed Pioneer employees to Exxon’s “notoriously cut-throat and dysfunctional culture” but instead pursued takeovers of other US oil companies such as Range Resources or Endeavour Energy Resources.

https://finance.yahoo.com/energy/articles/shale-tycoon-claims-exxon-ceo-124336695.html

https://www.ft.com/content/ad6d56fa-6a6e-43bd-8f12-205a3f94ac0e?syn-25a6b1a6=1

https://www.ft.com/content/ad6d56fa-6a6e-43bd-8f12-205a3f94ac0e?syn-25a6b1a6=1

https://finance.yahoo.com/energy/articles/shale-tycoon-claims-exxon-ceo-124336695.html

The potential acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount raises significant questions about the future of the T-T Sports division. Regulatory hurdles could impact the deal, mirroring past instances where media mergers forced divestitures. T-T Sports' current rights deals, many of which are short-term sublicenses, are set to expire soon. This precarious situation suggests that even without a merger, the division's long-term viability was already in doubt. The unique studio production style of T-T Sports is highlighted as a significant loss if the division ceases to exist.

Tempe, Arizona |

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2026/03/paramount-wbd-t-t-sports-future/

Ok when will the board fire Clay for his incompetency?

When will Larry step back in and slap him around a bit?

Or will we just have a fire sale and be bought by the likes of Nvidia or OpenAi? We need some form of stock shocker ! May be a hostile take over.

We need something and not more orange builder jackets or layoffs

Apparently Rich and the Board are planning to sell MOA with the executives going away with Hugh packages.

With all the layoffs and assumed more coming,cutting of benefits,reducing staff,ETC, it should be obvious that they are making MOA more sellable.

Is the Stock ever going to rebound, or are the powers that be trying to let it sink so low that another competitor will come in & buy at a discounted price?

Centene is being setup to get bought out by Humana. They are in talks as I type this. Their major footprint is Medicare. Centene has a very small Medicare footprint, but a very large Medicaid footprint. Meaning, Centene needs to adjust their business model in order to stay in business. All Centene’s eggs are in one basket, and there’s no diversification in their portfolio. They can’t compete against UHG or Elevance, without increasing their membership portfolio. Therefore, the only option, merge or get bought out. It’s gonna happen…Just watch!

I last heard that it was being sold.

No M&A possible until after 2027 but why should that stop the cutting to hire this position

This is what happened to SciPlay revenue after LnW bought back 100% of SciPlay

Q1 2024: $206 Million (Peak post-acquisition performance)
Q2 2024: $205 Million
Q3 2024: $206 Million
Q4 2024: $204 Million
Q1 2025: $202 Million
Q2 2025: $200 Million
Q3 2025: $197 Million
Q4 2025: $195 Million
Q1 2026: $187 Million
Q2 2026: $182 Million

Corporate Optimization at its Finest

Every single one brings layoffs. Somehow roles which have nothing to do with it are always classified as redundant (I've seen it happen again and again) and people are kicked out. Every single time it's used as an excuse to get rid of good, hardworking people.

There has been a lot of speculation here about whether we are being prepared for a sale, breakup or some other mega restructuring.

No one here knows if that is actually happening. But with the layoffs, VSP, outsourcing, business exits and all the Mission Simplfy changes, it seems worth asking what employes are seeing internally.

• Are you seeing bus units being separated or simplified in ways that would make them easier to sell?

• Are shared functions like finance, HR, tech or ops being split more clearly by line of business?

• Are leaders asking for more detailed reporting on headcount, budgets, profitability or costs by individual business unit?

• Have you seen unusual work around contracts... systems, vendors, assets or employee lists that seems designed to identify what belongs to each part of the company?

• Does the Cognizant outsourcing look like normal cost cutting??? or does it look like Centene is trying to reduce the amount of internal infrastructure it carries?

• Are there certain businesses, markets or LOBs that look more likely to be sold, exited or separated than others?

• For people closer to leadership, finance, strategy or integration work, does what you are seeing look like normal restructuring, preparation for a breakup (preparation for a sale,??) or something else?

After taking walgreens private, sycamore apponted mike motz as ceo... motz previously ran staples us retail another sycamore-owned business.

that history is worth watching... sycamore bought staples in 2017. it later pursued a recapitalization that would add about $1B in debt while allowing sycamore to pull about $1B of its investment back out. genius...

Walgreens employees are now seeing some similar things... tighter costs. org changes. job cuts. more work moving overseas. heavy focus on opex.

some folks here on layoffs.com here have already started calling it Staples 2.0.

this does not mean walgreens will follow the same path as staples. but sycamore owns both companies. walgreens is now led by the former ceo of staples us retail...

the similarities make staples a useful case study for us who are trying to figure out what maybe coming next.

EA has officially been acquired for $55 billion and is going private after 36 years as a publicly traded company.

The buyers are Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners, the investment firm run by Jared Kushner.

The deal has now cleared regulatory approval and closed.

For anyone wondering what this means for employees, there has been no announcement of layoffs tied specifically to the acquisition.

That said, EA has already gone through multiple rounds of cuts. The company eliminated about 5% of its workforce in 2024 and cut several hundred more jobs earlier this year. EA had around 14,500 employees as of March 2025.

Going private also means EA will no longer have to report quarterly results publicly.

So, nothing new has been announced on layoffs yet, but this is obviously something worth watching closely now that the acquisition is complete.

If anyone is hearing about reorganizations, team changes, hiring freezes, or cuts following the deal, please post what you're seeing.

NEWS: The FCC approved Paramount’s request to allow foreign ownership to exceed the 25% statutory benchmark, clearing a regulatory hurdle tied to its proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD).

In its declaratory ruling, the FCC found that allowing up to 100% aggregate indirect foreign equity ownership of Paramount would serve the public interest, subject to the Commission’s rules and specified conditions.

The FCC specifically approved indirect holdings above 5% for:

• Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund: 15.1%
• UAE entities associated with L’imad: 12.8%
• Qatar’s QIA TMT Holding / Qatar Investment Authority: 10.6%

From the ruling:

“we find that the public interest would be served by permitting indirect foreign equity ownership of Paramount … to exceed the 25% benchmark”

The FCC further found it in the public interest to permit “up to 100% indirect foreign equity interest of Paramount, in the aggregate,” subject to applicable rules, commitments, and conditions.